Hydraulic hospital bed lift



July 29, 1952 J. KlLLlFER HYDRAULIC HOSPITAL BED LIFT 2 SHEETS-SHEET l Filed Jan; 18, 1950 Fig. 2

Jac/r L. Kill/'fer INVENTOR.

July 29, 1952 J. KILLIFER 2,604,639

HYDRAULIC HOSPITAL BED LIFT Filed Jan. 18, 1950 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 Jack L. Kill/'fer IN V EN TOR.

BY JMMW Patented July 29, 1952 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE HYDRAULIC HOSPITAL BED LIFT Jack L. Kiuifer, Burbank, Calif. p Application January 18, 1950, Serial No. 139,303

Y. 1 Claim.

This invention relates to beds especially adaptable for hospital use, and more particularly to a hospital bed havinga hydraulic hospital bed lif f system. operatively attached thereto.

An object of this invention is to provide a hospital bed with telescopic leg members which are selectively operatively controlled hydraulic means.

A further object of the invention is to provide hydraulically operated means for selectively raising and lowering the telescopic legs of a hospital bed in accordance with a desired setting of a valve mechanism.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide a valve mechanism for regulating the flow of hydrauliciiuid to hydraulically actuated cylinders so as to adjust a hospital bed to a desired position; y'

v Due to the fact that doctors and nurses can more easily perform their necessary tasks upon a patient when the patient is reclining on a sub- Figure 8 is another enlarged vertical sectionalview showing another form of hydraulically exe.-

tensible leg members.

With continuing reference to the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numerals designate 'similar parts throughout the various views, reference numeral I0 generally designates stantially higher plane than would be easy for v the patient to raise or lower himself or herself to, it is a further object of the invention to provide means easily operated by a patient to raise or lower a hospital bed on which he is reclining.

Still further objects of the invention reside in the provision of a hydraulic hospital bed lift system that is strong, durable, highly eicient in operation, simple in construction and design, capable of being easily and cheaply manufactured, and easily operated by a patient lying in the bed.

These, together with the various ancillary objects of the invention which will become ap parent as the following description proceeds, are attained by this hydraulic hospital lift system, a preferred embodiment of Which has been illustrated in the accompanying drawings, by way of example only, wherein:

Figure 1 is a side elevational view of the hydraulic operated system as used on a hospital bed;

along line 2--2 in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is an enlarged vertical sectional view of the hydraulically actuated extensible leg members comprising one element of the present invention;

Figure 4 is a schematic diagram showing how the valve member actuates the telescoping leg members;

Figure 5 is a series of Schematic diagrams illustrating how certain combinations of the hospital legs may be selectively actuated;

Figure 2 is a vertical sectional View as taken a hospital bed upon which the telescoping legs I 2 are adapted to be secured. Itis quite possible to easily adapt existing hospital beds for'use with the invention by merely cutting or sawing thelowermost portions of the legs therefrom. .'.Then it is merely necessaryto secureby screws I4 `or other suitable meansthetubular shell I6 to theremaining portionsY of the legs.

The tubular shell ISvis internally threaded as at I 8 and a hydraulic cylinder 20 is provided with a portion 22 threadedly engaging thethreaded portions I8 of the tubular shell. l 1

The hydraulic cylinder 20 is provided with a reservoir chamber 24 to which is secured through a passage in the shell I6 a conduit 36. A partition 28 having an aperture 30 therethrough is provided between the reservoir chamber 24 andl the piston or main chamber 32. The piston 34 is slidably mounted within the main chamber 32 and a piston rod 26 is rigidly secured thereto. Threadedly secured to the lower end of the cylinder 2Il-is a gland seal bearing nut 38 within which the piston rod 26 is slidably emplaced.

rIhe lowermost end of the piston rod 26 is 46 may be secured to the lowermost portion of the cylindrical member 44.

Each of the conduits 36 is secured to a casing 48 whichv is mounted by suitable clips to the headboard of the bed IIJ. Connected to the casing 48 is an inlet supply conduit 50 (Figure 7) which is connected to a reservoir 52. A valve 54 is provided intermediate the casing and the reservoir. Likewise a by-pass conduit 58 is pro- *videdV for the usual purpose. A pump 55 is secured in such operative manner as to readily cause a ow of fluid from the vreservoir 52 up- /Wardsof the inlet supply conduit 50. The inlet conduit 50 is in communication with an enlarged conduit 60 in a drum 62, shown in skeleton outl indicated in A accesso 3 line in Figure 4, rotatably journaled in the casing 48. A plurality of radial passageways 64 are provided in the ends of the drum 62 for selective alignment with the desired conduits 36. A handle indicator 66 on the outside of the casing 48 is secured on a shaft which is rigidly secured to the drum 62. The shaft is generally indicated b'y reference numeral 68. A plurality of indicia are marked on the face of the casing 48 to indicate the following possible voperations of the sys-tem. As shown in Figure 7, the symbol N indicates that none of the apertures 64 are in alignment with the conduits 3B. Therefore none of these legs will be actuated. When the indicator 66 is rotated to the full position, a conduit 64 is in communication with each of the conduitsr36. When the indicator 66 is rotated to R, the rear legs as in Figure 5 will be actuated to raise the rear of the bed. As shown at B in Figure 5 whenV the indicator 66 is rotated to F the front legs are actuated. The other possible combinations'of legs are-the left and right sides which are actuated respectively as shown at 4C and D. Obviously, the apertures 64 are suitably Vspaced to permit these possible combinations.

Referring now to Figure 8i-t, will be seen that the hydraulically extensible leg assembly may be readily used for various other purposes such asf-tables, pianos, etc. In this form the assembly generally consists` of the leg 88 wherein is inserted a tubular shell 82. `The hydraulic cylinder 84. has the piston 86 slidably mounted therein. .A sliding sleeve 88 is provided between the cylinder 86; and the shell 82. andv is attached adjacent thebottom end of the piston 86. A castor 98 is'rotatably secured-to the bottom end of the pistonY 86T.. -When hydraulic pressure is released the castor 98 will disappear inside the shell 82 and bed post or leg 80.

Since from Vthe foregoing theV construction and advantages of this hydraulic hospital bed lift are readily apparent, further description is believed to .bef unnecessary. Y

However, since numerous modifications and uses will readily occur to those skilled in the art after a consideration of the foregoing specification and accompanying drawings, it is not intended to limit the invention to the precise em inY said shell, a piston slidable in said cylinder,

a cylindrical support member connected to said piston slidable between said shell and said cylinder, a plurality of conduits connecting said hydraulic cylinders in each of said leg members with a casing forming part ofv valve means for selectively actuatingsaid leg members, hydraulic fluid supply means connected to said casing, and means rotatablymounted in said casing for selectively connecting said conduits with said fluid supply means.

. JACK. L. KILLIFER.

REFERENCES CITED TheA following references areI of record in the iile of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Switzerland Apr. 8, 1911 

